Baked cheesy onion rings

A fun and tasty snack!

I don’t spend a lot of time online learning about viral food trends but thankfully I have a number of people in my life who occasionally tip me off when they see something they think I should try. One that was recently brought to my attention was a keto-friendly baked onion ring technique that I decided to test out. Rich and delicious, I could only eat a few of these gluten-free beauties, but I’ve decided that they are going to become a must-make whenever we fire up the grill for burger night as I think they’d be absolutely stupendous as a topping. If you don’t have a donut pan, you could use smaller circles of onion and make them in a muffin pan; they’ll come out as discs rather than rings but they’ll taste just as good.

Ingredients

• 1 small-medium sized sweet onion
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups (250 to 275 g) grated cheddar cheese

Method

• Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly oil the compartments of a donut pan (this recipe is scaled for a 6-section pan) and set aside.
• Sprinkle about 4 teaspoons (7 g) of the grated cheese in the bottom of each compartment.
• Slice off the stem and top end of the onion and peel it. Slice it into 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thick rings then separate them, keeping the rings intact.
• Put one ring into each of the donut compartments, on top of the cheese. Reserve remaining onion for a second batch or another recipe.
• Sprinkle another 4-6 teaspoons (7-9.5 g) of cheese on top of each onion ring (just enough to cover it completely).
• Bake in the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and turning dark golden brown.
• Remove the pan from the oven and let sit 2 minutes. Use a gentle utensil such as a plastic fork or knife to loosen each onion ring from the pan. Place on a paper-towel lined plate and serve hot, with your favourite dipping sauce on the side.

Makes 6 onion rings; recipe can easily be multiplied.